Taiga Bean Geese autumn 2023

This year’s variable weather has continued with flooding again at the weekend (August has beaten all records for rain) but since then it has been nice warm and sunny and is forecast to continue that way which makes birding more enjoyable.

The Scottish Taiga Bean Geese moved south to their traditional Norwegian (Glomma) staging grounds already on 17 August this year and I paid an unsuccessful visit to look for them on 21 August but another attempt yesterday was far more successful. The birds were in the field I was hoping to find them using (a field they have used many times before which fits with them being birds of habit) and they were readily viewable from a road. A count of 101 was pretty good but I counted only 5 family groups totalling 9 young but this low level of productivity also is typical of this population. I identified 3 tagged birds including the sole bird in this group still sending a GPS signal. This flock will be here for probably another month before heading for Scotland either directly or perhaps via Denmark.

After this I visited a very flooded Årnestangen where the nice weather had got a few raptors in the air. Best of all was a juvenile Honey Buzzard flying together with dad and frequently interacting with passing Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. Dad was passing for junior and the whole thing looked like flying practice with supervision.

the goose field and my viewing position which is marked in red on the map

and part of the flock

notice 2 birds right on the tree line (which is also shown by the GPS plots)

the GPS collar of 05 and the inscribed neck collar of V8

GPS 27 whose collar stopped transmitting this summer

a family group

a ringed bird that has lost its collar

and another bird with a (larger) leg ring but no collar

juvenile Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk)

with dad

dad with a Sparrowhawk (spurveugle)

and junior with the same Sparrowhawk

a 1st winter female Bluethroat (blåstrupe)

and a first winter male which actually has a blue throat

a very distant Great White Egret (egretthegre) on the flooded fields at Årnestangen

A flooded Årnestagen

Despite knowing there was no mud at Årnestangen I decided to visit on Thursday reasoning that there could be raptors and also that the flooded fields could attract waders or terns. My visit was much better than I had expected with 2 Great White Egrets, a Kingfisher, 130 Ruff and sky dancing Honey Buzzard topping the bill. My eBird checklist is here.

With the flooding I was unable to walk all the way out and lots of silt had been deposited by the now receding floodwaters. Fields of unharvested barley had clearly been completely underwater but did not look to have been damaged. It is easy to see why farmers want to use fields in floodplains as the silt makes for very fertile land but the floods that deposit this silt carry great risks. There are normally sheep grazing some of the fields that were still completely under water and I hope the farmer was able to move them before the flood.

In Maridalen the great rarity continues to be seen and I have now seen an adult male making four birds in total which are likely a family party and could also mean a pair has bred without being discovered earlier.

Great (White) Egret (egretthegre) has now become an expected autumn visitor to Nordre Øyeren although breeding is yet to be confirmed in Norway

sitting on a distant tree

male Kingfisher (isfugl)

although a typical butterfly of the early autumn this is only my second Wall Brown (sørringvinge) of the year and is another species that has, I think, had a relatively bad year

adult male House Sparrow (gråspurv) in Maridalen along side Tree Sparrows (pilfink) all of which look to be young birds. The lower bird has grey on the crown which could suggest a hybrid but in my experience it is not unusual to see young Tree Sparrows with grey in the crown which soon wears off

That long feared Maridalen tick

Long suffering followers of this blog will know that there is, or should I now say was, one very common species missing from my local patch (Maridalen) list. When I was on 199 species I lived in fear that this species would be the one that brought me to the milestone double tonne and whenever a visiting birder (none of us regulars were ever so lucky) reports one (always without a photo) I have been rather scathing. If I had just seen a report of three House Sparrows from Maridalen I would have again been my usual doubting self but as it was me who saw them and I have all 3 in the same photo I guess I have to accept that they do occur in The Dale..!! House Sparrow now becomes my 206^th species in Maridalen following on from Gull-billed Tern!?! which was my 205^th and the 200^th if you are wondering was Kittiwake.

House Sparrow is still a very common species in suburban and urban Oslo and must occur right up to the southern edge of Maridalen which abuts the city and Tree Sparrow which is also common in suburban Oslo occurs in flocks of upto 100 in Maridalen around the farms but until Monday I had never seen a House for the Trees 😊

It feels very autumnal now with Yellow Wagtails, Whinchats and Bluethroat regular in Maridalen alongide the odd Red-backed Shrike and Redstart. Young Sparrowhawks seem to be everywhere and often their hunting skills on anything they see including Hooded Crows, Nutcrackers and Wood Pigeons which they have no chance of taking down.

With so much rain and continued flooding I have not visited Nordre Øyeren looking for waders but Fornebu seems to have held more than usual with Knot, Ruff, Dunlin and shanks and sandpipers.

Butterflies and dragonflies are providing some excitement when the weather allows but there are few around this year.

3 House Sparrows (gråspurv) in Maridalen - my first ones after 21 years of succesfully avoiding seeing one ;-)

the one on the right is a juv male (some black coming through on breast) and the left hand is a female although I don't know what age

this juvenile Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) had its eye on the Sparrows

putting the brakes on and preparing for the kill

two juvenile, a female (larger size) below and a male where practicing their dog fighting skills 

Swallows (låvesvale) always start alarm calling when a Sparrowhawk turns up and will mob it although I don't think they are at any danger of being caught by a juvenile

Knot (polarsnipe), Ruff (brushane) and Redshank (rødstilk) at Fornebu. All are juveniles

I have been in the forest monitoring my scarce, late breeders and had a few encounters with Black Woodpecker (svartspett)

and this Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

and Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) are currently easy to find both in the forest and in the city

this very pale Buzzard (musvåk) over Maridalen was the first time I have seen such a bird there

Peacock (dagpåfugløye) has not been common this year

nor has Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)

or Painted Lady (tistelsommerfugl) but they have obviously bred close to Oslo as all of them were in pristine condition

still some Brown Hairstreaks (slåpetornstjertvinge) to see at Fornebu